NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE USAFA WEARABLE PERFORMANCE MONITORING RING DEVICES

The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) intends to award a sole-source, Firm-Fixed-Price contract to Ouraring Inc. under the simplified procedures for commercial products in accordance with RFO Part 12. The proposed North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 339920.

Requirement:
The USAFA Dean of Faculty Department of Biology (DFBI) requires 50 wearable smart ring performance monitoring devices for use by Cadets to measure biometric data and provide insights into human performance and quality and quantity of sleep.
The devices must meet the following salient characteristics:

• Accommodate ring sizes 6 through 15.
• Measure blood oxygen levels, heart rate and heart rate variability, body temperature variations, movement and activity, respiratory rates, and quantity and quality of sleep.
• Data collected from this technology must provide a minimum of 75% agreement with a polysomnography sleep lab test.
• Feature a rechargeable battery that lasts a minimum of 5 days.
• Include an enterprise software solution that collects and analyzes data from all devices into a single instance for fleet research.
• Devices must connect to this enterprise software application and not to the individual user, allowing easy transfer of a device and inherent software from person to person.
• The associated software shall not have any AI features or capabilities.

Justification:
In accordance with RFO 12.102(a), the Government has determined that only one source is reasonably available. Market research confirmed that standard commercial smart rings fundamentally utilize AI/algorithmic processing; however, Ouraring Inc. is the only manufacturer capable of providing a specialized configuration (the "Oura Research Application") that provides a blinded user experience and natively disables the prohibited AI features to comply with Air Force cybersecurity mandates. Furthermore, Ouraring Inc. is the only known source capable of producing the mandatory ring sizes 14 and 15, and meeting the strict 75% polysomnography agreement standard. Finally, market research identified no authorized third-party enterprise resellers capable of fulfilling this requirement without introducing unacceptable supply chain risk.

Disclaimer:
This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations, and a formal solicitation will not be issued. However, any responsible source that believes it can meet these requirements may submit a capability statement. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. A determination not to compete this action is solely within the discretion of the Government.

Responses: Submit capability statements to Nicole Cibula at nicole.cibula@us.af.mil and Amy Krause at amy.krause.1@us.af.mil by 11:00 AM (MDT) on18 May 2026.